Statistics from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks federal prosecution data, back up the activists’ claims that Mr. Obama’s deportations still include many rank-and-file illegal immigrants.
TRAC said only 10.8 percent of the detainers ICE issued in the first six months of this year were for those who were serious threats to public safety or national security. Only 38 percent of those whom ICE put in deportation proceedings had a criminal record of any kind, including traffic violations.
“In fact, comparing agency data from both before and after the new ICE guidelines were issued [in December] reveals that fewer — not more — individuals on whom detainers were placed have had any record of criminal activity, let alone serious criminal conduct,” the TRAC authors wrote in a report released earlier this month.